News

Senators Hammer EELV Spending

--Marc V. Schanz4/3/2014

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Several members of the Senate Appropriations
Committee’s defense panel urged Air Force leadership Wednesday to take a closer
look at Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program
costs, saying they planned to press Defense Secretary
Chuck Hagel to re-examine the launch competition effort. Sen. Lindsey Graham
(R-S.C.) said the Air Force is reducing its launches where it allows
competition from 14 to seven, even though the Pentagon’s top acquisition
official, Frank Kendall, had directed USAF to compete more EELV cores. Sen.
Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said she was not satisfied with progress towards
opening up competition. “I am convinced costs are not going to be lower,”
Feinstein said of the current structure of the EELV contract. Six senators are
sending a letter to Hagel to ask him to take a “closer look” at the program,
she added. Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James noted several launches have
been pushed beyond the five-year spending plan due to the longer service life
of Global Positioning System satellites. James also addressed an Air Force
review, which is due at the end of May, into the viability of the supply chain
for Russian-made
rocket motors. James said the USAF has a two-year supply,
noting that spare parts for these engines are also important. If anything were
to go wrong, the Air Force could use the Delta IV as a “fall back,” she added.